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Updated “Covenant” paints bleak picture of life in black America

Author and talk show host Tavis Smiley is shown speaking at Book Expo America in 2014. (AP Photo/Mark Lennihan, file)

The “Black Lives Matter” movement has thrust the nation’s racial divide into the spotlight. But of course, the issues that plague people of color didn’t crop up overnight.

Ten years ago, Public Radio and TV Host Tavis Smiley laid out evidence that blacks in America are at a disadvantage when it comes to education, healthcare, job opportunities, and the criminal justice system in a New York Times bestselling book “The Covenant with Black America.” A new edition, “The Covenant with Black America 10 years later” has just come out.